United's youth team travel to Manchester City in FA Youth Cup
Oxford United's under-18s travel to Manchester City's new "Minihad" facility this evening for their FA Youth Cup third round tie (7.00pm kick off).With the game being switched from City's usual youth-team venue of Hyde United to their new purpose-built 7,000 capacity ground, adjacent to the first team's Etihad stadium, the tie takes on a bit extra significance for United's youngsters, with a home fourth-round tie against Coventry City waiting for the winners. This would be the first City game to be played at the new ground, which has a reduced capacity of 2,500 for this evening's fixture.
City's under-18 squad currently lies third in the Under-18 Premier League table, and the young Blues have also had an excellent campaign in the UEFA Youth League, winning all six of their opening games to set up a tie against Schalke 04 in the last 16. Included in the City squad is Spanish left-back Angelino, while they will decide today whether or not to include winger Brandon Barker, Spanish defender Pablo Maffeo, and French striker Thierry Ambrose.
United, meanwhile, will take a full squad to Manchester, including Freddie Grant, who is eligible to play despite being on youth loan with Farnborough Town. Oxford beat Swindon Town 3-2 in the previous round thanks to a brace from Jordan Graham and an AJ George penalty. George and Lewis Hayden, currently on loan with Banbury United are also both included in the U's squad, which is:
Eddie Cavanagh, Jack Stevens, Cian McCormack, Drew Ricketts, Charley Tuttle, Rob Cundy, Miles Welch-Hayes, Freddie Grant, Lewis Hayden, Seth Humphries, Kieran Diaz-Benitez, Muctaru Conte, Josh Morgan-Williams, AJ George, George Jeacock, Jordan Graham
You can follow the game tonight with live updates on Twitter from @OUFClive.